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Gulaal (Hindi: गुलाल) is a 2009 Indian film directed by Anurag Kashyap and starring Kay Kay Menon, Raj Singh Chaudhary, Abhimanyu Singh, Deepak Dobriyal, Ayesha Mohan, Jesse Randhawa, Piyush Mishra and Aditya Srivastava. The film explores themes such as pursuit of power, quest for legitimacy, perceived injustices and hypocrisy of the powerful. The film is set in present day Rajasthan, a state in western India. The plot is provided by student politics of the university and a fictitious secessionist movement consisting of former Rajput leaders who have become present day elite.

Plot[link]

In the fictional town of Rajpur, Dilip (Raj Singh Chaudhary), a law student who is a Rajput from Bikaner, and his faithful servant, Bhanwar (Mukesh Bhatt), secure housing in an old, run-down British-era pub. Here Dilip meets Rananjay Singh “Ransa” (Abhimanyu Singh), a prince who despises the ideologies of his father and the aristocracy. Ransa's straightforward and fearless personality has quite an effect on the mild-mannered Dilip. Shortly, Dilip visits the university hostel where he is ragged by a gang of university thugs, led by Jadwal (Pankaj Jha). They strip him and lock him in a room with Anuja (Jesse Randhawa), a young lecturer in the same university. Both Dilip and Anuja are released naked. Dilip's brother tells him to ignore the event and that things were the same in his days, effectively stating that the society as a whole hasn’t changed much since his time. But Ransa disagrees and tells Dilip that they should avenge this act. Initially, Dilip is reluctant but finally gives in and goes along with Ransa, after Ransa provokes him to give the thugs a taste of their own medicine. But the tables are turned and both Dilip and Ransa are beaten and are ragged and thrown out of the hostel. Ransa meets Dukey Bana (Kay Kay Menon), a local figure who is trying to gather support for the Rajputana separatist movement, who allows them to proceed with the plan to injure Jadwal. Ransa and Dilip ambush Jadwal, but the other thugs corner them in a cinema hall. Dukey Bana interferes and rescues them. Dukey Bana then convinces Ransa to in the General Secretary Elections at the university. Running against Ransa is his father's out-of-wedlock daughter, Kiran (Ayesha Mohan).

Ransa is kidnapped by his father's out-of-wedlock son Karan (Aditya Srivastava), who asks him to withdraw from the elections. Ransa mocks him and Karan kills him. Taking advantage of the situation, Dukey Bana makes Dilip to take Ransa's place in the election. The chances of Dilip winning are minimal, so Dukey Bana bribes the electoral panel to rig the count in Dilip's favour. Dilip wins the election to become the general secretary. Kiran then seduces Dilip and convinces him to allow her to become the cultural secretary. Dukey Bana then starts using the funds for the Rajputana separatist movement. When Dilip finds out about this he goes to confront Dukey Bana about the funds. Bana lets Dilip know about the movement and tells him that the funds are being used for it. Dilip is not convinced and tries to reason with Bana. A frustrated Bana takes him to his country estate where his thugs have killed Jadwal and shows him the body to intimidate him. Anuja, is thrown out of the hostel and moves in with Dilip. Kiran gets pregnant and is angry with Dilip for being careless about it. She gets an abortion and leaves Dilip. Anuja tries to make Dilip understand that Kiran has no interest in leading a married life and leaves him. A frustrated Dilip resigns from his post and Kiran steps in. She then tries to seduce Dukey Bana, but she fails when Bhati (Deepak Dobriyal), Dukey's second-in-command, comes looking for Dukey. In a private meeting, an irate Dukey threatens Karan and Kiran by telling them that the only reason they're alive is because of their links to the local king.

Dilip, blinded by his love for Kiran, becomes violent and aggressive. Anuja also decides to leave him. Meanwhile Dilip finds out about Kiran from Bana's mistress, Madhuri (Mahi Gill). He grabs a gun, goes to Bana's house and shoots him. While dying, Bana tells him that Kiran used Dilip to get to him. At the same time, Karan reveals to his group of thugs that once Dukey Bana is out of the way, the Rajputana movement will have no choice but to choose Karan as its new leader and therefore legitimize his royal status. They conclude that to get rid of Dukey, they must first eliminate Bhati. Dilip wants to hear the truth from Kiran, so he tells Bhati to get her on the phone. Kiran refuses to answer, so Bhati goes off to find her and is killed by Karan's thugs. Dilip comes to meet Kiran who tells him that all she wanted to was use him to become general secretary. Dilip rejects her explanation and almost shoots her but gets shot by thugs. Despite his injuries, Dilip walks back to his house and dies there. The film ends with Karan as the head of the Rajputana movement, while Kiran sheds a tear as one of the loyal faithful.

Parallel to the plot there is an interesting character of Dukey Bana's brother Prithvi Bana played by Piyush Mishra. He wears bizarre dress and seems as psychic, though talks very satirically and often abused and slapped by Dukey banna for this. It is told in flashback that he was once a guitarist in his young days. Along with him there is a person characterized as Ardhanarishvara, who is killed by Dukey Bana mistakenly when Dukey Bana was outraged with his brother and aims to shoot him and misses.

Cast[link]

• Kay Kay Menon as Dukey Bana
• Raj Singh Chaudhary as Dilip Singh
• Abhimanyu Singh as Rananjay Singh "Ransa"
• Aditya Srivastava as Karan
• Mukesh Bhatt (Actor) as Bhanwar Singh
• Jesse Randhawa as Anuja
• Deepak Dobriyal as Bhati
• Ayesha Mohan as Kiran
• Mahi Gill as Madhuri
• Piyush Mishra as Prithvi Bana
• Jyoti Dogra as Dukey Bana's wife
• Teddy Maurya as Bahrupiya, Ardhnarishwar and Man in blue paint

Production[link]

Production on Gulaal began in 2001, when Anurag Kashyap was listening to songs from Pyaasa and his film Paanch was struggling with censors. Inspired by Mohammad Rafi songs from Pyaasa ("Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai") and Zeenat, ("Haye re duniya") the film is a dedication to Sahir Ludhianvi, the lyricist of the song and all other poets who had a vision of India. The film was also partially based on a story idea by Raj Singh Chaudhary who eventually played the role of Dilip Singh in the film.^[1] The film was delayed for three years for various reasons, but it was released in March 2009.^[2] The movie's first trailer was released with the director's other movie Dev D.

Reception[link]

Gulaal received positive reviews from critics. Rajeev Masand of CNN IBN rated the film at three out of five stars and said "Anurag Kashyap is one of the most exciting voices in Hindi cinema today."^[3] Anupama Chopra of NDTV gave three stars and referred to Anurag Kashyap as Anti-Yash Chopra.^[4] Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave it three stars and said that "fantastically watchable film that scores high on moments."^[5] Nikhat Kazmi gave the film three stars and said that "the film scores in having taut performances and a gritty screenplay as well."^[6] Noyon Jyoti Parasara of AOL.in gave the film 3.5 stars and said "Anurag scripts every character cleverly providing an identity to even the smallest characters and also a contrast in form of another character – true playwright style. He even has the jesters coming in to bring some comic relief but also more importantly they bring in a message."^{[citation needed]} Tamil writer Charu Nivedita said this film is the "best political film" ever in Hindi and a document of current political history.^{[citation needed]} Although the critics' reviews were favorable, the movie opened to only 30 percent capacity during its first week in theaters across India. In addition, word of mouth has been poor for this film, which could lead to slowdown at the box office for its subsequent runs in the weeks that followed.^[7] Box Office India stated that Gulaal netted 3.25 crore (US$648,375) in its first week, which was below expectations.^[8]

The film was screened at the 2009 London Film Festival.

Soundtrack[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Gulaal at the Internet Movie Database

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2012)

Mahi Gill
Born	(1975-12-19) 19 December 1975 (age 36) Firozpur, Punjab, India
Other names	Rimpy
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2003 - present

Mahi Gill (or Mahie Gill) is an Indian actress, working in the Bollywood industry. She is best known for her role of Paro in Anurag Kashyap's critically acclaimed Hindi film Dev.D, a modern take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's Bengali novella Devdas for which she also won the 2010 Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. She started her career in Punjabi films before making a debut in Bollywood with Dev D.^[1][2]

Early life and education[link]

Mahi Gill was born on 19 December 1975 in Firozpur, Punjab. She completed her Masters in theater from Punjab University, Chandigarh in 1998.

Career[link]

Mahi got her first break with the Punjabi based Bollywood film Hawayein and has done a couple of Punjabi films along with theatre. Anurag saw her first at a party with her friend Ayush Kumar (identity still unknown) and instantly finalized her to play the character of Paro in movie Dev D. She has worked in Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster with Jimmy Shergill and Randeep Hooda which was released on 30 September 2011. This movie earned her a nomination at the FilmFare awards for best actress. Gill has also appeared in Paan Singh Tomar with Irrfan Khan.

Filmography[link]

Awards[link]

• Filmfare Awards
  • 2010: Best Actress (Critics' Choice): Dev.D ^[5]
• Star Screen Awards
  • 2010: Screen Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Female: Dev.D
• IIFA Awards
  • 2010: IIFA Star Debut Award: Dev.D

References[link]

External links[link]

• Mahi Gill at the Internet Movie Database
• Mahi Gill on Dev D

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Piyush Mishra (born 1963) is an Indian film and theatre actor, music director, lyricist, singer, scriptwriter.

Early life and education[link]

He spent his early life in Gwalior, where he received his education. Thereafter he moved to Delhi, and joined National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi, graduating in 1986.

Career[link]

Theater and television[link]

After his graduation from NSD in 1986, Piyush Mishra started his career as a theatre actor in Delhi, and in 1990, helped start the theatre group Act One, with founder-director NK Sharma and stage actors like Manoj Bajpai, Gajraj Rao and Ashish Vidyarthi. In the following years he wrote and directed several plays as a part of Act-1 Group, including the acclaimed play, Gagan Damama Bajiyo (The Sky Resounds with the Call to Arms), based on freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, which was first performed in 1994,^[1][2] and upon publishing, sold its first edition in just seven days.^[3] In 1996 he joined Asmita Theatre Group, and performed his Popular one man shows An Evening with Piyush Mishra. He wrote the lyrics for Asmita's popular plays. Piyush acted as Maniac in operation three star (an adaptation of Dario Fo's play Accidental Death of an Anarchist). Piyush is also known for his performance in Swadesh Deepak's Court Martial as Surat Singh, first with Ranjeet Kapoor (1991) and later under the direction of Arvind Gaur (1996).^[4]

By then, he had established himself as a theatre director and directed Comedy of Terror play for Shriram Centre Repertory Company.,^[5] and also presented his solo act play at the National School of Drama's Annual Theatre Festival, Bharat Rang Mahotsav in 1999.^[6] Mishra has also acted in a television series, Rajdhani, directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia for Star TV.

Films[link]

While Mishra was at the NSD, 1986, he was considered for a role in the Sooraj Barjatya film Maine Pyar Kiya which would go on to become a blockbuster, "presumably" that of Prem which was played by Salman Khan. But for some reason, he did not make an effort.^[7]

Mishra made his debut as a film actor with Mani Ratnam's Dil Se.. in 1998,he portrayed as C.B.I Investigation Officer. though he continued to stay in Delhi to pursue theatre. His transition from playwright to screen writer happened when he wrote the dialogues for Rajkumar Santoshi's 2001 film The Legend of Bhagat Singh, which was inspired in part by Mishra's critically acclaimed play on Bhagat Singh - Gagan Damama Bajyo.^[3][8] It won him the Zee Cine Award for Best Dialogue (2003).^[9] Meanwhile he moved to Mumbai in November 2002,^[1] where he went on to establish a career as a film lyricist, screenwriter and as an actor. He started writing lyrics with the film, Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar in 2002, and subsequently wrote for Black Friday, Aaja Nachle and Tashan.

Mishra won accolades for his performance as Kaka in Vishal Bhardwaj's 2003 film Maqbool, an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth.^[10][11] He wrote his own dialogues for his performance as Hafeez (Huffy) Bhai in Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (2007), and delivered them in poetry style.^[12]

Mishra again appeared in Anurag Kashyap's 2009 movie Gulaal, a movie based on Indian youth, politics, caste-prejudice, and other such social topics. He played Prithvi, the poet brother of Dukey Bana (played by Kay Kay Menon), in the movie. He also wrote the lyrics for the songs in the movie, and sung few of them as well and was also the music director of the film.^[11]

Personal life[link]

Presently he lives in Mumbai with his wife and two young sons Josh and Jai.

Filmography[link]

Actor[link]

• Bharat Ek Khoj (TV Series) (1988)(Sepoy)
• Sardar (film) (1993)(Guest Appearance)
• Dil Se.. (1998)
• Samurai (Tamil) (2002)
• Maqbool (2003)
• Butterfly (2003)
• Sala Bandar! (2003)
• Ek Din 24 Ghante (2003)
• Matrubhoomi (2003)
• Deewaar (2004)
• Super (Telugu) (2005)
• 1971 (2007)
• Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (2007)
• Gulaal (2009)
• Lahore (2010)
• Tere Bin Laden (2010)
• Lafangey Parindey (2010)
• Bhindi Baazaar (2011) as Pandey
• That Girl In Yellow Boots (2011) as Auto Rickshaw Driver
• Rockstar (2011) as Dhingra

Lyrics[link]

• Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar!! (2000)
• Black Friday (2004)
• Aaja Nachle (2007)
• Tashan (2008)
• Gulaal (2009)
• Gangs of Wasseypur (2012)

Screenplay and dialogues[link]

• The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002) - Dialogues
• Yahaan (2005) - Screenplay and dialogues
• 1971 (2007) - Screenplay
• Ghajini (2008) - Dialogues
• Lahore (2010) - Screenplay
• Chittagong (2011) - Dialogues
• Agneepath (2012) - Dialogues

Singer[link]

• Aarambh hai prachand (Gulaal-2009)
• Duniya (Gulaal-2009)
• Jab Sheher hamara (Gulaal-2009)
• Chhaliya (Tashan)
• Ik Bagal (Gangs of Wasseypur - 2012)

Composer[link]

• Gulaal (2009)
• Lahore (2010) (for the song Oh Re Bande)

Awards[link]

• Zee Cine Awards
  • 2003: Best Dialogue: The Legend of Bhagat Singh (with Ranjit Kapoor and Rajkumar Santoshi) ^[13]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Piyush Mishra at the Internet Movie Database
• An Interview with Piyush Mishra

[[File:Piyush Mishra]]

Kay Kay Menon is an Indian actor.

Early life[link]

Menon was raised in Ambarnath and Pune, Maharashtra. His early life was in "H" type Rangehills, Khadki which were factory quarters for those working in the ammunition and high explosives factories. His father was popularly known as "Cashier Menon". His parents moved from Kerala to Mumbai when he was very young.

Kichu, as Menon was known among friends, studied at the St. Josephs Boys' High School in Khadki. He passed his 10th grade in 1981. He did his Bachelors (Physics) from Mumbai University and his MBA from the Department of Management Sciences at the University of Pune,^[1] graduating in 1988 with a major in marketing. He was popular in his class as a singer of ghazals.

Menon's initial focus was working in the advertising industry. He was involved in the first Kinetic Honda and Marlboro cigarette advertisements in India. He started his career in theatre productions where he met his wife, Nivedita Bhattacharya. He gradually moved to television acting and finally film acting. He made his film debut with Naseem (1995), followed by Bhopal Express.

During his struggling days, he was a regular feature at the Lunar Cafe, a small restaurant near the Santa-Cruz (East) bus stand.

In the early years of his career, Menon worked in TV shows such as Pradhan Mantri and TV movies like Zebra 2 and Last Train To Mahakali. Menon was first noticed in Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, where he was greatly appreciated with fellow newcomer Shiney Ahuja, and received much acclaim for his performance. His performance as the anguished DCP Rakesh Maria in the movie Black Friday has been widely appreciated and acclaimed. The movie, based on the book by journalist S. Hussain Zaidi on the 1993 Bombay Bomb Blasts, awaited an Indian release for almost 2 years before its final release on 9 February 2007. It was featured at the Locarno International Film Festival and received widespread praise. Kay Kay Menon's portrayal of an honest, but human cop (when checking the house of the accused, he spots bananas in the refrigerator and picks one up to eat, since he hadn't eaten well that day. Seeing the look of the accompanying constable, he says to him, "you can take some too.. there's more in the fridge"). The Sunday Edition of the Indian Express described his performance, "Excellent as always".^{[citation needed]} In 2007, he acted in the commercially and critically successful Life in a... Metro, as the adulterous husband of Shilpa Shetty's character. In 2008, he was highly appreciated for his performance in the film Shaurya. He played the role of the antagonist in the critical and commercial failure, Drona, starring alongside Abhishek Bachchan.^[2] In 2009, he starred in The Stoneman Murders where he played a police officer on the hunt for the Stoneman serial killer.^[3] Kay Kay will now be seen in 'Dream Man', a new film by Makrand Deshpande. The film is a spoof on Bollywood. The versatile actor will be seen in 14 roles against Cast: Bollywood Actors Afzaal khan, Kay Kay Menon,Vasudha of (Aasma band) and Amit Mistry.

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

• 2007: Nominated: Filmfare Best Villain Award for Sarkar

External links[link]

• Kay Kay Menon at the Internet Movie Database

References[link]